Democracy

Democracy taking a hit. 

US sinks to new low in rankings of world's democracies

"The US has fallen to a new low in a global ranking of political rights and civil liberties, a drop fueled by unequal treatment of minority groups, damaging influence of money in politics, and increased polarization, according to a new report by Freedom House, a democracy watchdog group."

The US earned 83 out of 100 possible points this year in Freedom House’s annual rankings of freedoms around the world, an 11-point drop from its ranking of 94 a decade ago. The US’s new ranking places it on par with countries like Panama, Romania and Croatia and behind countries such as Argentina and Mongolia. It lagged far behind countries like the United Kingdom (93), Chile (93), Costa Rica (91) and Slovakia (90)."

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"The report offers three recommendations for improving American democracy: removing barriers to voting, limiting the influence of money in politics, and establishing independent redistricting commissions."

PHILIP WEISS: This is what ‘Jewish democracy’ looks like

"There are of course roughly equal populations of Jews and Palestinians under Israeli governance, between the river and the sea, nearly 7 million each, but the Palestinians enjoy second-class political rights in Israel, and none at all in the West Bank and Gaza.